Some eco-friendly actions you can take to protect the Planet

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Taking steps to protect the environment is something everyone should do and can do. It is our Planet and our responsibility to do what we can to protect and preserve it.

Whether you are believer in climate change and global warming or not, the actions you take do have consequences. As our children and their children will be inhabiting this world long after we have gone, it is important we take a few key actions to protect the environment in which we live.

Clean-up your local community: You don't need a national “clean-up day”, or even a regional or local one to pick up around your local community and encourage others to do the same. If you see trash, pick it up. Toss it in the nearest trash can.

Where I live and work, in a municipal park, there are a number of dog walkers and other park users who do exactly that. In fact they reach the parts that park staff often does not get to, or not very often, and thus keep the park clear of littler even more. Some actually carry their own bags and picking gear. Other dog walkers, unfortunately, are less considerate and dispose of their dog waste bags by simply leaving them everywhere.

I have come across advice from some people who have written on this matter as to politely challenging people who they observe dropping litter to please put it into the bins. Personally I would advise against such actions. A great many people who inconsiderately drop litter will not be happy to be reminded of it.

Reduce and minimize waste: United Nations estimates indicate around 33 percent of the food that is produced around the world is wasted, according to The Guardian. This means close to 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted each year, while close to 795 million people are going hungry or suffering from malnutrition. When you break this down by category, it is easy to see which foods are being wasted most:

45% fruits and vegetables

35% fish and seafood

30% cereals

20% dairy

20% meat

People living in the highly developed countries, such as the US, the UK, Germany, and others, appear to be the worst offenders, whereas those living in less-developed and poorer countries are generally more frugal. And that goes not just for food. They are more frugal in general.

Do a little gardening: Those who grow their own food can become more sustainable, and will be less likely to waste the food for which they worked so hard. In addition, gardening is good for your overall health and well- being. You know what you are eating, as you grew it yourself, so you won't have to worry about ingesting harmful pesticides and toxins and GMOs bits. Parts of the herbs, fruits or vegetables that aren't used can go right back into your garden a compost to complete the circle.

Oh, sorry, what was that? You haven't got space to grow food? If you have a garden you can grow food and even if you haven't got much of one or none at all you can.

Get busy reusing, repurposing, upcycling and finally recycling: The more you you do that, the less will end up in dumps and landfills.

Before you even go near the recycling bin(s) with anything think RRU first. First think reuse, then repurpose, then possibly upcycling, and that well before you ever toss it into that bin or those bins.

You should first work on reducing your overall consumption, reusing those materials and goods that can be used again, and upcycling items which no longer have a use in their current form into new, usable items. You might as well get the most out of your purchases.

Think of those glass jars that certain produce come in. Aside from the fact that you have paid for them through your purchase they are useful for so many things. Warning everyone, I am now on a roll again.

Our grandparents and their parents rarely would ever toss such things out until or unless they were broken. Such jars were used for storage of dry goods and foods by grandma and grandpa, and they were even used for drinking vessels. After all, they would say, they paid for them, and right they were. Empty tin cans too were used for a variety of tasks and purposes and even the lids.

Food waste, after you have eliminated as much of it as possible, does not belong into the trash can. It belongs into the compost bin or composter to be used in the garden.

Only when all the reuse, repurposing and upcycling options are exhausted, and only then, the recycling bin(s) come(s) in. though that only works really if there is a kerbside collection in your area.

Stay in touch and in tune with Nature: Take the time each day to get out and about, so you stay closely connected with Nature. The better you understand its value, the more respect you will have and the more you will do to protect the environment. Even if it is just for a short time each day, go for a walk, take a bike ride, go on a hike or just sit outside and look around. When you look closely, you will be amazed and awed by Nature and its capabilities.

Lowering emissions: Don't forget to lower your emissions by opting for eco-friendly forms of transportation. I know that that all depends on where you live and the distances that you have to travel; for work for instance. If distances are not too far then opt for a good quality bicycle and also learn how to maintain it. When traveling further than you would wish to with a bike and the facilities are there opt for public transport, such as bus, tram, metro, train, over the car. Only use the latter if absolutely necessary.

While none of these actions will not necessarily change the world over night or even in a day, each can make quite a difference. When we work together as a whole, all our small actions combined, the people of the world can accomplish quite a bit. Start now and be the change you want to see in the world.

© 2017

System change not climate change

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Would any sane person think dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday; or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons; or that dancing around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Then why now, with all the world at stake, do so many people retreat into these entirely personal “solutions”? Why are these “solutions” not sufficient? But most importantly, what can be done instead to actually stop the murder of our Planet?

While “personal solutions” have some effect, even the smallest things, but they will not really change anything unless we are, all together, prepared to change the system. It does not matter how “green” and environmentally-friendly you may make your lifestyle capitalism will still remain unsustainable. Thus system change that is required for the world to become a better place where people and the Planet count and not (just) money.

When it comes to climate change the question we also have to ask ourselves if why is the emphasis placed so much on the word “carbon” and everything almost is, even when it is pollution in the form of soot, and such, all called carbon, in the latter instance “brown carbon”. So, why? Because carbon has become a tradeable commodity, so to speak, with modern day indulgences, called carbon certificates and such. That does not make it right; the opposite rather. So, in other words, are we being sold somewhat of a falsehood or at least a half-truth?

The Hippies, who often today are being belittled, warned us already in the 1970s about pollution and what we were doing to the Planet by doing what we were doing. The message still stands for it is pollution that has been the culprit and is the culprit, industrial pollution and the pollution from vehicles, from the burning of fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas.

Many people today seem to forget that in around that same time of the Hippies scientists were telling us that the world was going to be hit by a new ice age and that we were going to end up with glaciers all over the place and to some extent the very same signs that then were claimed to be the signs of global warming were cited; the expansion of the Sahara and the Sahel, and books were written about it and movies made.

Fact is that the Earth is going through some kind of climatic upheaval but despite the fact that everyone – or almost everyone – is jumping up and down in triangles claiming carbon-dioxide and other “greenhouse” gasses being the culprit such changes are not something new. And, no, the last changes did not happen millions of years ago; they happened around a thousand years ago, and it would appear as if there is an almost 500 year cycle from cold to warm to cold, etc.

When the Romans were in Britain they grew grapes in this country, apparently almost as far north as Hadrian's Wall, for the making of wine. Then, and more for reasons of climatic change than anything else, in the early fifth century they just packed up and left.

Some centuries later the Vikings settled on a large island that they called Greenland and unless they were all seriously colorblind the “green” part of the word should be a giveaway. The island was covered in forests and meadows.

In the tenth century the son of the Viking chieftain of Greenland, one Leif Eriksson, arrived on the Labrador coast and, according to records, was presented with sweet black grapes by the local inhabitants. But less than hundred years later the Vikings seem to have abandoned Greenland for climatic reasons.

In the sixteenth century frost fairs were held on the Thames with the river, apparently, frozen to almost its total depth. The cold time seems to have then carried on, more or less, as far as winters are concerned, because some of the summers seem to have been very hot and dry at some times during King Henry VIII time, until about the beginning of the Industrial Revolution when it started to get warmer, incrementally, to where we are today.

While some of the climatic upheaval, or climate change, today is due, no doubt, to what we have been doing, in the name of progress and profit, to the Planet, some of it, probably around fifty percent, or even more, is due to the cycles the Earth seems to be going through on a more or less regular basis.

What we are facing at this very moment also is an Earth axis shift, which the powers-that-be claimed to be a shift of the magnetic north pole, and this will impact on the changes even more than anything. The magnetic north pole, by the way, cannot shift or move, at least not according what we were taught when I was a little younger, as it is located, according to what were taught, on an island off the north coast of Canada. In know that Wikipedia and other “sources” today claim it to be different but I am not buying that.

If the Earth axis is tilting, or even if it is that the magnetic field of the Planet is changing, this will have an impact on the likes of the Gulf Stream, the Jet Stream and many other weather and climate phenomena, and no matter how much we cut “carbon” it will not make much of a difference. That is not to say that we should not reduce or eliminate pollution of the air, the water and the soil, etc. we should and we must. But we must, along with this, also prepare to adapt to the changes and prepare.

But this is not going to happen in the current political and economic system where everything is run by some hidden agendas that just do not make sense to anyone who is prepared to think for him- or herself. The great problem is, though, that many, the great majority in fact, it would appear, are not prepared to think for themselves and want to leave that all to the politicians, the very same who have gotten us into much of the mess in the first place in many instances.

We have to be and create the changes that we want and need and the models for a new society, community by community and area by area and while there are many things that can be done on a individual basis others may and do require a community to do them.

There are some things, as said, that we can do on our own, and those can also be done on a larger scale, such as withdrawing our support for the current system; refusing to partake in the wild consumerism that we are being encouraged to partake in; and others. Creating the new models of the society that we would want, however, can only be done in a group, in a community, in a village, and therefore we must find like-minded folks to work together with.

© 2017

Open your eyes

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

You do not have to, this very day, rescue the entire world. In fact, you won't be able to do it (alone) and that also is not your calling.

However, do every day a little bit, in your own way, and invite others to do the same, in their own way. Small acts - together - can and do have a great impact and together - all of us in our little space - we can change the world for the better and make it a better place for all of Earth's children.

All too often people think that they are called upon to change the entire world in a solo trip, like a single-handed yachtsman or yachtswoman crossing the high seas. This is not what any of us are called upon to do, for it is an impossibility. The changing of the world that is, not the crossing of the oceans though that is not something that everyone of us would want to do or could do.

Gandhi said “be the change that you want to see in the world” and that is what we are to be and what we can be. We can be and must be the change. It is not going to work in any other way. No one is going to do it for us and without us again there will be no (real) change. But it takes some effort on our part. It does not happen by itself.

Only we, ourselves, together with others of like mind and spirit, can make thins change happen, on which ever level and in which ever area.

On your own you do your own little bit. Not trying to change the world single-handed but by small steps in your own life you can do a great deal and if everyone would do the same in his life things would look quite different in a very short space of time.

It also requires the teaching of others and this teaching is best done through our own (personal) example and not through preaching. Actions, as we know, speak louder than any words and rhetoric is not what is called for here and is only counterproductive if not backed up by positive actions that can be emulated by others. In fact, rhetoric of then is counterproductive in any case and only a positive example often will change people's perception and encourage them to step out on that path themselves.

Open your eyes to see what can be done and when you learn to look then you will see how much you, even as a single individual, can do and how much impact you can have.

Too many of us when looking at the problem only see the entirety and the complexity and immediately react with a “nothing I can do there” without looking even further and closer and by doing so see not the changes that they can effect.

So, let's open our eyes and see what we can do where and join our open hands and hearts with others to effect even greater changes.

© 2015

Change: It's all or nothing

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

It is either all or nothing; there is no “I want things to change but I do not want to change myself”.

All too many people do want a change but are not prepared to change themselves. But you can only get real change if you change first. As the Mahatma said: “Be the change that you want to see in the world” and that means what? It means that you, we, all of us, have to change ourselves first.

No change can be brought about, in society, unless our mindset and our ways are changed first in such as way that we reflect the change that we want to bring about. Without changing ourselves from within there can and will be no change in society.

We all want change to the system – well, many do – and a radical change even but all too many do not want to change themselves, and definitely not radically. But it is either all or nothing. We can stand there for ever and say that we want change and we want to change things and society as a whole even but unless the change begins with us, with us being the change that we want to see within the world, the change is not going to happen, ever. It is as simple as that, and as difficult.

© 2015

Nebraska egg producer inspired to do even more for disabled

Far too many people focus on the first three letters of “disability,” rather than the last seven.

That message, delivered by U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez at a White House event honoring “Champions of Change” last week, stuck out to Dan Hromas of York, Nebraska.

Hromas, a 37-year-old disabled military veteran, runs an egg-laying operation, Prairie Pride Poultry. He was one of 10 honorees at the Oct. 14 event that celebrated people who have gone the extra mile to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

“That made an impact on my pscyhe, what he said,” Hromas said. “Now I’m looking at things in a whole different perspective. ... When I need some help, I need to look for those individuals who are overlooked, those with disabilities, and focus on the ability part.”

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/money/nebraska-egg-producer-inspired-to-do-even-more-for-disabled/article_4f0c5d18-a479-5fd9-9ac0-f3bd12046bb1.html

Be a living fish

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

I shall be making use here of some of the lines from the lyrics, to some degree, translated, of a German evangelical free church children's song for the purpose of explaining how we all need to change in order to achieve a new society that is fairer and better for humanity and the Planet. No religion involved here.

Be a living fish
swim against the flow
rise up and be brave
victory will be yours

Fish that are alive are capable of swimming against the stream and will do so vigorously, and in case of the salmon, even jump weirs and other obstacles, to get upstream.

Only if we are living fish and brave to turn and swim against the tide can we bring about the change that is needed to create this new society and achieve the victory that we desire.

Only the dead fish swim with the flow
let themselves be carried by the others
they neither have the courage
nor the strength to be different
wanting to remain in the big crowd

Today there are many dead fish everywhere, it seems. Everywhere where we look no one is prepared, almost, to step out of line and swim against the stream, against the flow of the current. Yes, there are people who are eccentrics or who buck some of the trend, but very few are actually prepared to kick the system that enslaves us all and is about to destroy the very Earth we depend upon for life.

They do not have the courage and strength, even if they are aware of the fact that a change is needed, to turn and say enough is enough and I am going to stand up for what is right and am starting to make changes. They want to stay in the big crowd that offers safety, not being noticed, and thus not becoming a target for ridicule or worse.

Have the courage to be different
to most of the people around you
even if they decry you as crazy
ask only what must I do to be the change?

It requires courage, real courage, to be different and to either stand out from the crowd, stand against the crowd or to stand on your own apart, and that even if they decry you as crazy and they will, and even worse.

But, when the time comes also be wise and courageous to stand with those that, like you, have decided to swim against the current, to stand against the crowd, to work together for the new society and to give birth to it.

No one is going to do it for us. No god, no king or elected official. Only we, ourselves, together, “we ourselves” (sinn fein), can do it. Therefore, to do it we must swim, like living fish, against the tide and current and overcome weirs and rapids so as to reach the our goal, a society that honors and respects both man and Planet.

© 2014